Another look at Hell Bent (Doctor Who 9.12)

[unfeathered]

I watched this out of context the other day because I’m writing a fic with Clara in her ‘diner’, and really enjoyed it this time around so thought I’d write another review, six and a half years on. (Has it really been that long???)

Original thoughts here

I could really see this time just how desperate the Doctor was, how shifty he was around Clara, never meeting her eyes, acting really pretty damaged. How all that time in the confession dial and resulted in everything coalescing in his mind until he was completely focussed on just one thing: bringing Clara back.

Whether she wanted it or not – and once she’d got used to the idea, of course she fell in with that plan. That’s the whole point the episode was making about the hybrid, that the two of them together just egg each other on to take more and more risks. The only difference is that now they’ll be doing it separately.

The whole thing with Me was probably the worst bit as I couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t have changed much, beyond getting a bit calmer and even smugger, in all that time. And how she could remember stuff from 4.5 billion years ago so clearly despite all her claims about her mortal memory before. And without turning into the Face of Boe to give her head room to store all those memories. Also, I felt Clara was very quick to trust her and team up with her after what had happened in Face the Raven, but perhaps that’s just emphasising again how happy Clara is to take risks in order to have fun and adventures.

Anyway, a line I particularly noticed this time (because I was focussed in on the diner) was the Doctor’s “Shouldn’t this diner be over the other side of the hill?” Implying either that Clara’s TARDIS had modelled itself on the diner in The Impossible Astronaut because it was nearby and/or familiar to the Doctor, or that it actually was the diner in The Impossible Astronaut. That explanation had never occurred to me before, but I rather like it. Clara, the girl who’s saved the Doctor so many times in all her ‘echoes’, going on to help out subtly in the background even after he’s forgotten her. Neat. :-)

PS I realised from rewatching the ep that this icon is actually in Clara's diner - it's at the end when she's gone through the Elvis door into the console room!

Comments

[elisi]

or that it actually was the diner in The Impossible Astronaut.
Ooooh. That IS neat. Clara is EVERYWHERE. :D

And your icon is lovely - is it snaggable?